Heads turned when Bill Walsh, who had coached the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl titles, strode onto the field last month at the Oakland Raiders' Oxnard training camp at the invitation of new Coach Mike White. But White insisted that Walsh wasn't there to retool the Raider offense. "When Bill came to Oxnard, we talked some football, but it was more of a friendship type of thing," White said.

If the road to the Super Bowl were based on actual miles traveled, the Raiders would be a lock to represent the AFC next January in Tempe, Ariz. Starting today with their official kickoff of training camp in Oxnard, the Raiders will begin a five-month "season on the road." They will be in Austin, Tex.; Dallas, Oxnard, Oakland, Minneapolis and El Segundo in the next six weeks, all before the regular season.

After more than a month of brainstorming, Al Davis and his new Raider offensive coaching staff have emerged with a no-huddle offense. That was merely one of the wrinkles revealed by new Coach Mike White the other day. White also spoke of his staff's plan to let quarterback Jeff Hostetler call more plays, and of a desire to use receiver Rocket Ismail more. "We are firm believers in letting your players dictate the system that you use," White said. "We will not stuff players into a set system."

Far apart in negotiations with leading rusher Harvey Williams, the Raiders are trying to trade for Pittsburgh Steeler running back Barry Foster, NFL sources said. The Raiders met with the Steelers at the recent NFL scouting combine and discussed surrendering at least one front-line player and a high draft pick for Foster, who rushed for 851 yards last season despite missing most of six games because of injuries.

Are the Raiders going to trade their most valuable player because he's a blabbermouth? It could happen. Tim Brown could be talking his way right out of town. The already outspoken wide receiver has made a new-year resolution to speak out even more, against anything and everything he sees wrong with the Raiders, even if that makes him, in his own words, "a blabbermouth." Brown is only a Raider by default, remember, because Al Davis decided to match Denver's gaudy 1994 offer to the player.

Floyd Peters and Bruce Allen are the two newest figures to join the Raiders as part of a vast restructuring that will drastically change the face and style of the organization. Peters, former defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Minnesota Vikings and the then-St. Louis Cardinals, has been hired as defensive line coach.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, Art Shell slipped quietly out of his El Segundo office and drove away, a Raider no longer after 27 years in the organization, more than five as head coach. At 1 p.m., Mike White, the Raiders' 10th head coach, walked into the bright glare of a news conference as a professional head coach for the first time after 37 years of coaching, the last five as a Raider assistant.

Mike White was a popular football coach in Illinois because he went to the Rose Bowl with a team that prided itself as "the Raiders of the Big Ten." He was an unpopular one in Michigan because opponents there, including the coaches, thought the Fighting Illini players played so dirty that they openly called them the Biting Illini. Did the Raiders get the right guy? I couldn't say, but Bill Walsh could.

Art Shell, who spent his entire 27-year NFL career with the Raiders, was fired Thursday by the man who made him the first black head coach in the modern NFL. Shell, a Hall of Fame tackle, was fired by owner Al Davis and replaced by assistant Mike White. "He was one of the great contributors we have ever had," Davis said. Davis said he wants a Super Bowl title and needs a new coach to get there. "I'm not the coach here, I don't want to be," Davis said when asked about his hands-on approach.

Although all signs point to Mike White being named Raider coach, perhaps as early as today, Art Shell is not conceding anything. "Nothing has been decided," said Shell Wednesday night. "I'm still going to work tomorrow like I do every day." According to one source, Shell is asking owner Al Davis to give him one more year. But, according to another source, there have been exploratory talks with the Miami Dolphins about Shell becoming an assistant on Coach Don Shula's staff.